Apple introduces AppleCare+ for iPhone users with a crippling case of the butterfingers

Apple has just introduced a new extended warranty plan called AppleCare+ that’ll cover your iPhone for two years after you’ve purchased it for just $99. Should anything happen to your iPhone that wasn’t your fault, Apple will replace it. Now if you’ve actually done something stupid, like gone swimming in the ocean with your iPhone in your pocket, or drop your iPhone on concrete, you’ll be allowed to get a replacement iPhone just two times during those two years. Each time you ask Apple to fix your iPhone after something happened to it that was your responsibility, it’ll cost you $50. The AppleCare+ plan replaces the previous cheaper ($69) AppleCare plan that didn’t cover accidental damage. We think this new plan is actually a bit better, especially when compared to the protection plans that operators offer. That $99 is basically a $50 per year insurance policy and you’ve got a $50 deductible should things go to absolute shit. Just to be on the safe side, it’s advisable that you shove your iPhone in a case just a few seconds after taking it out of the box, because you never really know what’s going to happen.

Not to get off on a tangent, but we’re kind of shocked that Apple didn’t introduce a newly designed iPhone yesterday. That all glass body is incredibly fragile and we know many folks who have had the unfortunate experience of hearing that all too familiar sound of shattering glass when their precious Jesus Phone leapt out of their pockets and hit the ground. Part of the reason we were looking forward to a new design was to get a more robust solution, because let’s be serious, no one likes cases. We buy them because with the iPhone 4 you’re kind of forced to, but in a perfect world no one would wrap Apple’s amazing industrial design in a piece of silicone.